Industry in the North East of Scotland No. 40

Combs, Industrial and Household Plastic Ware : A.C.W. Limited (formerly the Aberdeen Combworks Co. Ltd.)

Combs are as old as mankind itself. The Bible mentions that Eve tempted Adam with an apple and he did eat the forbidden fruit, but it is certain that before tempting him, Eve made herself alluring by using the five pronged combs with which every human is equipped, namely her five fingers to disentangle and arrange her flowing tresses. The Aberdeen Combworks Co. Ltd. has been in existence for a very long time but unfortunately, even their earliest designs were not available to Eve.

The Aberdeen Combworks Co. Ltd. was an amalgamation of the well known firms Of S. R. Stewart St Co. Rosemount Comb Manufacturing Co. and George Stewart & Sons. The industry was first started in Aberdeen about the year 1820 and the company’s main manufacture was combs. tumblers and shoelifts from real horn. The company also manufactured combs and other articles from casein, which is a milk product, and these items were marketed under the trade name ‘Keronyx’.

Owing to keen competition the company commenced the injection moulding of plastics in 1937, manufacturing a complete range of combs and other domestic items such as egg cups. egg spoons and containers, bathroom tiles, cutlery trays. etc.

A further amalgamation took place in 1963 – with Daniel Montgomery & Son Ltd. of Glasgow. This company was also formed in the early 1800’s and like the Combworks was forced by overseas competition to enter the plastics field. Another point of similarity is that both companies have had chairmen who had the honour of serving respective cities as Lord Provost.

Montgomerys are engaged in the production of corks for the wine and spirit trade. At the time that the company was formed, bottles were closed with a driven cork, but as bottling methods changed,  Montgomery‘s diversified to meet new demands and set up wood-working and metal-working divisions. In the post war years plastics made considerable inroads into the closure market and a separate plastics division was established in 1955 – it grew rapidly. Within six years £100,000 worth of modern injection moulding equipment had been installed and the division was producing
bottle closures by the million. During these six years. the complete division had been put on a three shift system, but in spite of this, demand exceeded supply. Montgomery’s therefore found it necessary to supplement their own production and placed contracts with The Aberdeen Combworks Co. Ltd. As this association continued it became obvious that it was in the best interests ot both companies to amalgamate, and this was done in November, 1963.

The decision to make Hutcheon Street works the main centre for the group‘s plastics activities was taken some months later. after a detailed study of the two factories (Montgomery’s other divisions continue to operate from Glasgow). There was little doubt that a single production unit would prove much more efficient than two smaller units each requiring identical service departments.

The move itself was an interesting example of detailed planning. At mid-day on 17 July 1964, production ceased at the Glasgow works and a team of electricians and engineers moved in to disconnect the production equipment and prepare it for shipment. The first of a convoy of lorries left Glasgow at 8 am. on Monday 20th, and the last lorry had arrived in Aberdeen by the evening of Wednesday 22nd.

The machines were then carefully inspected and re-connected and were available for production by Monday 27 July. During the first week, production was limited to eight hours per day, but twenty-four hour per day production commenced on the 3 August. Behind this apparently simple transfer of equipment lay months of feverish activity both in Aberdeen and Glasgow. In Aberdeen existing equipment had to be re-sited, power, water and compressed air services doubled, a new labour force selected and trained and housing arranged for the eight families moving from Glasgow.

In Glasgow. every piece of equipment was catalogued. arrangements were made for the re-deployment of the labour force, the families which the company wished to move North were taken to
Aberdeen for a week-end so that they could decide whether or not they wished to move.

It should be remembered that all this work was carried out against the background of the typhoid epidemic in Aberdeen and at one stage it looked as if the whole move would have to be postponed, but fortunately this was not necessary.

Since August 1964, six more machines have been installed at Hutcheon Street and the company is now the largest injection moulding unit in Scotland. Two and a half million mouldings are produced each week. Apart from combs and closures (the traditional lines of the two companies) many other items are manufactured. Cups and stoppers for vacuum flasks, car coil covers, pirns for the textile trade, boxes for sutures, bobbins for solenoids,  fishing net needles for Australia and Newfoundland, table-ware in the shape of unbreakable crockery for Rhodesia and the islands of the Caribbean –
the range is enormous. Hand-cut combs are still being produced, fashioned by skills almost identical and certainly traditional to the days of horn. There is something almost comforting to realise that in these days of moulded mass-production there is still a place and a demand for the hand-fashioned article.

Craftsmanship is also in evidence in the toolroom, where 70 per cent of the new moulds are being manufactured, and it is indeed encouraging to learn that this is being done using local labour. These moulds require to withstand pressures of up to three tons per square inch and are therefore made from top quality nickel chrome steel. Conventional metal working equipment is used for basic machining, but the fashioning and finishing of intricate detail calls for hand skills of the highest order.

Many of the mouldings now produced require some form of finishing or decoration, and a printing department is to be set up to supply this service. Four basic printing techniques will be used, h0t foil stamping, hot roller coating, off- set and silk screen.

Any study of the history of the Combworks shows clearly that the company has been alive to the necessity of change – indeed it came into being as a result of it. Since then many changes have taken place – from horn to casein – from casein to moulded combs. During the last two years other sweeping changes have been made and as a result of them the company has now four times the number of machines it had in l963 – three times the labour force and the working week has been extended  from forty-two to one hundred and twenty hours.

The latest change has been the change in name, since it was felt that the old name did not fully reflect the full scope of the company‘s activities.

The Aberdeen Combworks Co. Ltd.  can look back over its long history with justifiable pride. A. C. W. Limited can obviously look forward with complete confidence.

Source : Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce Journal, Volume 46, Number 4, September 1965